1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program. More particularly, the invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program offering image analyzing techniques for managing image contents more effectively than before to let people handle the contents in an intuitive manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid progress in the digitizing techniques used in such fields as the Internet, broadcasting, communications, entertainment, medical care and education, there has been a growing need in recent years for accessing necessary information easily and rapidly out of huge quantities of multimedia information available. Particularly noteworthy is the need for efficiently managing and treating large amounts of image contents accumulated on networks and in home servers. That need prompted energetic: efforts of research and development on image recognition techniques for analyzing and extracting significant images from image contents.
More specifically, with hard disk recorders and digital home appliances coming into general use today, research and development is being conducted on what may be termed similar image searching techniques that allow people to enjoy a new lifestyle of entertainment. The techniques, if implemented; would illustratively allow only preferred TV programs to be recorded for subsequent viewing or recorded while being reproduced for concurrent viewing. Furthermore, with digital cameras, digital video cameras and the Internet gaining widespread use, research and development is being carried out on what may be called digest, image creating techniques whereby various still and moving images would easily be edited into personalized original digest images to be preserved, Examples of these techniques are disclosed illustratively in Japanese Patent Laid-open Nos. 2002-344872 and 2006-54622.
Such developments converge on the need for innovative image searches whereby the above-mentioned new lifestyle of entertainment would be brought about or digest images would be created. Illustratively, there has been a strong need for searching still image contents for desired images or searching moving image contents for highlight scenes.
The efforts to meet the above-mentioned need for image searches include attempts to commercialize keyword-based image searching techniques. Also underway are the efforts to develop browsing techniques for browsing moving image contents at will, as well as techniques for creating “video minutes” of conferences deemed significant in terms of visual communication.